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ABSTRACT
Juan de Vera’s El Enbaxador (1620) was one of the main treatises on the role of the ambassador in Early Modern Europe and the first one published in Spanish. At the time, Spain was no exception to the influence of Tacitus as a significant ancient author to inspire the political practice of the age. Juan de Vera, a nobleman and writer, soon an ambassador and entitled count, incorporated his own reading of Tacitus into El Enbaxador. Justus Lipsius, the outstanding editor of Tacitus’ works, was also a main source for this book which was defined by John Elliott as a ‘quintessentially Lipsian handbook for diplomats’. The focus of this article is on Tacitus’ citations in El Enbaxador and their contexts within the book. My aim is to identify the specific themes for which Tacitus served as an exemplary source of guidance according to this particular text. Notably, some of such themes pertain to ambassadorial affairs, while others are common political topics in Early Modern Europe. Vera's reading of Tacitus in El Enbaxador gained wider dissemination beyond Spain as the work was subsequently translated into French and Italian.
Acknowledgements
I would like to acknowledge Jan Waszink and his research group The secularization of the West: Tacitism from the 16th to the 18th century for their advice on Tacitean considerations and, in particular, for their expert comments in order to be able to identify the Tacitus sources and specific passages used by Vera within those sources.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Juan Antonio de Vera y Zúñiga, El Enbaxador (Sevilla: Francisco de Lyra, 1620). The title will be often shortened to Enbaxador in order to ease reading. For the same purpose, seventeenth century punctuation has been slightly adapted in certain sentences. All translations from texts not originally in English are my own unless otherwise stated. A comprehensive article on El Enbaxador is María Victoria López-Cordón Cortezo, ‘Juan Antonio de Vera y Zúñiga (1583–1658). Modello di ambasciatori o specchio di trattatisti?’, in De l’ambassadeur: Les écrits relatifs à l’ambassadeur et à l’art de négocier du Moyen Âge au début du xixe siècle (Rome: Publications de l’École française de Rome, 2015). For Juan Antonio de Vera’s biography, see Carmen Fernández-Daza Álvarez, El Primer Conde de la Roca (Badajoz: Junta de Extremadura, 1995). To account for the influence of Vera’s Enbaxador, Mattingly, the author of a still useful overview of Renaissance diplomacy, wrote ‘In one edition or another, probably most often in the fat, ugly, little Parisian duodecimo of 1642, it may have travelled in the saddlebags of more ambassadors than any other treatise of its kind … When the seventeenth century spoke of The Perfect Ambassador it meant De Vera’s book’. Garret Mattingly, Renaissance Diplomacy, rev. edition (Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1964), 181.
2 Vladimir E. Hrabar, De legatis et legationibus tractatus varii (Dorpati Livonorum, 1905). It contains a good overview of handbooks for ambassadors up to the 1620s.
3 Scipione Ammirato, Discorsi sopra Cornelio Tácito (Fiorenza: Filippo Giunti, 1594), 540.
4 Giuseppe Toffanin, Machiavelli e il ‘Tacitismo’. La ‘politica storica’ al tempo della Controriforma (Padua: Draghi, 1921) is still a canonical reference for Tacitism; see also Pablo Badillo O’Farrell and Miguel A. Pastor Pérez, eds., Tácito y tacitismo en España (Barcelona: Anthropos Editorial, 2014), esp. Part II, focused on Tacitism in Spain.
5 Alexandra Gajda, ‘Tacitus and Political Thought in Early Modern Europe’, in The Cambridge Companion to Tacitus, ed. A.J. Woodman (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 253–68; Daniel Kapust, ‘Tacitus and Political Thought’, in A Companion to Tacitus, ed. Victoria Emma Pagán (Malden: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012), 504–28.
6 Enrique Tierno Galván, ‘El tacitismo en las doctrinas políticas del siglo de oro español’, Anales de la Universidad de Murcia (1948), 898–988.
7 Beatriz Antón Martínez, El tacitismo en el siglo XVII en España: el proceso de la «Receptio» (Valladolid: Universidad de Valladolid, 1991); Saúl Martínez Bermejo, ‘Tácito leído: prácticas lectoras y fundamentos intelectuales de la recepción de Tácito en la edad moderna’ (PhD dissertation, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 2009); José Antonio Maravall, ‘La corriente doctrinal del tacitismo político en España’, in Historia del pensamiento político español, t. III (Madrid: Cultura Hispánica, 1984), 77–106.
8 Baltasar Álamos de Barrientos, Tácito Español ilustrado con Aforismos (Madrid: Luis Sánchez, 1614).
9 Manuel Sueyro, Las obras de C. Cornelio Tacito (Antwerp: Herederos de Pedro Bellero, 1613).
10 Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas, Los cinco primeros libros de los Annales de Cornelio Tácito (Madrid: Juan de la Cuesta, 1615).
11 One of such contemporary editions is Cayo Cornelio Tácito, Anales, trans. Carlos Coloma (Barcelona: Editorial Iberia, 1985).
12 Gareth A. Davies, ‘The Influence of Justus Lipsius on Juan de Vera and Figueroa’s Embaxador (1620)’, Bulletin of Hispanic Studies 42, no. 3 (1965): 160–73. I am not aware of any extant study of Lipsius’ influence in Spain through his edition and commentary of Tacitus works in 1574 and 1580 which would be really useful to complement the analysis of Lipsius’ influence in El Enbaxador through Politica and Constantia.
13 John H. Elliott, Richelieu and Olivares, Canto edition (Cambridge University Press, 1991), 26.
14 Theodore G. Corbett, ‘The Cult of Lipsius: A Leading Source of Early Modern Spanish Statecraft’, Journal of the History of Ideas (1975): 139–52; Gareth A. Davies, ‘Juan Antonio de Vera’s Embaxador (1620) and the Spirit of Sevillian Classicism’, in Recognitions: Essays Presented to Edmund Fryde, ed. Colin Richmond and Isobel Harvey (Aberystwyth: National Library of Wales, 1996), 375–410. For Lipsius’ influence in the reception of Tacitus in Spain, see Beatriz Antón Martínez, ‘El humanista flamenco Justo Lipsio y la receptio del Tacitismo en España’, in Humanismo y pervivencia del mundo clásico: actas del I Simposio sobre Humanismo y Pervivencia del Mundo Clásico (Alcañiz, 8 al 11 de mayo de 1990), ed. J. Mª Maestre and J.P. Barea, Vol. I (Madrid, 1993), 237–50; Lia Schwartz, ‘Histoire et politique dans l’œuvre de Quevedo. Le modèle de Tacite selon Juste Lipse’, in Tacite et le tacitisme en Europe à l’époque moderne, ed. Alexandra Merle and Alicia Oïffer-Bomsel (Honoré Champion, 2017), 277–98.
15 Justus Lipsius, El libro de la Constancia, trans. Juan Bautista de Mesa (Sevilla: Matías Clavijo, 1616).
16 Dedicatory letter to Philip II in Juan Botero, Diez Libros de la Razón de Estado, trans. Antonio de Herrera (Madrid: Luis Sánchez, 1593).
17 Dedicatory letter to the Archbishop of Salzburg in Giovanni Botero, De la Ragion di Stato Libri Dieci (Venetia: I Gioliti, 1589).
18 Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas, dedicatory letter to Rodrigo Calderón, Los cinco primeros libros de los Annales de Cornelio Tácito (Madrid: Juan de la Cuesta, 1615).
19 Charles Davis, ‘Baltasar Álamos de Barrientos and the Nature of Spanish Tacitism’, in Culture and Society in Habsburg Spain: Studies Presented to R. W. Truman by His Pupils and Colleagues on the Occasion of His Retirement, coord. Eric Southworth, Nigel Griffin, Colin P. Thompson, Clive Griffin (Tamesis Book Limited, 2001), 57–78. This article can be read to understand that the publication of Tácito español was a long and tortuous story that began with a first submission for approval in 1594. Please note that Álamos produced aphorisms and a commentary.
20 Baltasar Álamos de Barrientos, dedicatory letter to the Duke of Lerma, Tácito Español ilustrado con Aforismos (Madrid: Luis Sánchez, 1614).
21 Agnès Delage, ‘Tacitisme et hypertacitisme: les écritures du secret politique dans l’Espagne du XVIIe siècle’, in Le partage du secret. Cultures du dévoilement et de l’occultation en Europe, du Moyen Âge à l’époque moderne, ed. Bernard Darbord (Armand Colin, 2013), 305–28.
22 Bernardo J. García García, Manuel Herrero Sánchez and Alain Hugon, El arte de la prudencia. La Tregua de los Doce Años en la Europa de los pacificadores (Madrid: Fundación Carlos de Amberes, 2012).
23 Maurizio Bazzoli, Ragion di Stato e interesse degli stati. La trattatistica sull’ambasciatore dal XV al XVIII secolo, in Stagioni e teorie della società Internazionale (Milan: Edizioni Universitarie di Lettere Economia Diritto, 2005), 267–312, especially 287.
24 Maurizio Viroli, From Politics to Reason of State (Cambridge University Press, 1992), 30–7.
25 Olivier Chaline, ‘L’ambassadeur selon les casuistes’, in L’invention de la diplomatie. Moyen Âge-Temps modernes, dir. Lucien Bély (Paris: PUF, 1998), 59–69.
26 John G.A. Pocock, The Machiavellian Moment: Florentine Political Thought and the Atlantic Republican Tradition (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1975), 31–48.
27 Eric Garver, ‘After Virtù: Rhetoric, Prudence, and Moral Pluralism in Machiavelli’, in Prudence: Classical Virtue / Postmodern Practice, ed. Robert Hariman (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2010), 67–97.
28 John D. Lyons, Exemplum. The Rhetoric of Example in Early Modern France and Italy (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1989), 12–20; Ann Moss, Printed Commonplace-Books and the Structuring of Renaissance Thought (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996).
29 Anthony Grafton, Introduction to Inky fingers, the Making of Books in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2020).
30 Such quotations of Livy are in Vera, El Enbaxador, I, 30 r-v and Ibid., II, 116r.
31 Vera, El Enbaxador, II, 124r.
32 Ibid., II, 90r.
33 Montaigne, Essais, III, 8.
34 Furthermore, if we look at the list of political authors cited in Naude’s Bibliographia Politica (1633) under the heading ‘historians’, most of them are also authors cited by Vera in El Enbaxador. There not such an exact match with the rest of the categories. The authors’ names are compiled in the final pages of the first French translation of Naudé’s book: Gabriel Naudé, Bibliographie Politique (Paris: Guillaume Pele, 1642).
35 Beatriz Antón Martínez, ‘Tácito, ¿inspirador de la carrera política del conde-duque de Olivares?’, Minerva: Revista de filología clásica, N° 6 (1992): 285–312.
36 Vera, El Enbaxador, I, 31r. This example can be found in Tacitus, Annals, 2.7. As sources for Tacitus’ works I am using Justus Lipsius, C. Cornelii Taciti Opera quae extant a Iusto Lipsio postremum recensita (Antwerp: B. Moretus, 1648) and Tacitus, Complete Works of Tacitus, ed. Alfred John Church, William Jackson Brodribb, Sara Bryant, Reprinted and Edited for Perseus (New York: Random House, Inc., 1942). Legatus is also a Roman military rank, e.g. legatus legionis is a commander of a legion. Silius is also mentioned elsewhere in the Annals, always in this military function, e.g. Ann. 1.31 and 2.6.
37 A recent contribution on how the ambassadorial literature considered the ‘right of embassy’ of rebels is Dante Fedele, ‘Le statut des rebelles dans les écrits sur l’ambassadeur au début de l’époque moderne’, in Diplomaties rebelles. Huguenots, Malcontents et ligueurs sur la scène internationale (1562–1629), ed. Fabrice Micallef and Matthieu Gellard (Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2022), 21–49. Interestingly, the goal of the article is to show that the literature on the role of the ambassador placed more emphasis on tackling the relationship between rebels and the prince they were contesting or between the parties in a civil war than their relationships with foreign powers.
38 Vera, El Enbaxador, I, 37r. This example can be found in Tacitus, Annals, 3.73.
39 Ibid., I, 40r–43v.
40 Ibid., I, 46v. This example can be found Tacitus, Annals, 4. 56.
41 Ibid., III, 18v. These events relating to Messalina’s secret wedding are described in Tacitus, Annals, 11.31.
42 Ibid., III, 3, 25v. This episode from Nero’s reign is described in Tacitus, Annals, 15.18.
43 Ibid., IV, 128v.
44 Ibid., IV, 126r.
45 Victoria Pineda, ‘La elocuencia del embajador: don Juan Antonio de Vera y Zúñiga y las Orationi militari de Remigio Nannini’, Studia Aurea 9 (2015): 483–530.
46 Vera, El Enbaxador, I, 82v. This example can be found in Tacitus, Annals, 1.11 and 1.12.
47 Ibid., I, 74r (77sic).
48 Ibid., III, 11v.
49 Ibid., II, 109r.
50 Ibid., I, 83r-v. The reference to the fact that Jews would not allow Caligula’s statue into their temple comes from Tacitus, Histories, 5.9. Caligula’s decree to set up the statue is dated 40 AD. The whole episode including Petronius’ decision was described by contemporary authors such as Flavius Josephus. For further reading, see Keaton Arksey, Perceptions of the Ancient Jews as a Nation in the Greek and Roman Worlds (University of Manitoba, 2016), 118–20, thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies of The University of Manitoba in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts.
51 Ibid., I, 81v-82r.
52 Gerhard Oestreich, Neostoicism and the Early Modern State (Cambridge, 1982).
53 Vera, El Enbaxador, II, 88v–89r.
54 Ibid., II, 90r, example in Tacitus, Annals, 4.46 and the subsequent account of Pharasmanes’ hostilities in id., 12.45.
55 Vera, El Enbaxador, II, 99r. Quotation taken from Tacitus, Annals, 4.71. This precise sentence is also used by Lipsius in his discussion on dissimulation in Politica, see Justus Lipsius, Politica: Six Books of Politics or Political Instruction, ed. and trans. Jan Waszink (Assen: Royal Van Gorcum BV, 2004), 517.
56 Ibid., II, 100v.
57 Aphorismos sacados de la Historia de Publio Cornelio Tacito por el D. Benedicto Aries [sic] Montano para la conseruacion y aumento de las Monarchias, hasta agora no impressos, y las centellas de varios conceptos, con los auisos de Amigo de D. Ioachin Setanti (Barcelona: Sebastian Mateuat, 1614); Arnaldo Momigliano, ‘Il Tácito español di B. Alamos de Barrientos e gli Aphorismos di B. Arias Montano’, in Id., Contributo alla storia degli studi classici. Storia e Letteratura 47 (Roma: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 1955), 61–6.
58 Davis, ‘Baltasar Álamos de Barrientos and the Nature’.
59 Vera, El Enbaxador, II, 100v. It can be found on Tacitus, Histories, 2.95. The famous maxim is et magis alii homines quam alii mores in Latin.
60 Ibid., III, 65v.
61 His biographer, Carmen Fernández-Daza was not able to find traces of his library.
62 Vera, El Enbaxador, IV, 122v.
63 Remigio Nannini, Orationi Militari raccolte per M Remigio Fiorentino, da tutti gli historici greci e latini, antichi e moderni (Vinegia: Giolito de Ferrari, 1557). For further reading on El Enbaxador and Nannini’s Orationi Militari, see Pineda, ‘La elocuencia’.
64 To learn more about Nannini’s Orationi Militari and the genre of speeches collections, see Juan Carlos Iglesias-Zoido and Victoria Pineda, ed., Anthologies of Historiographical Speeches from the Antiquity to the Early Modern Times (Leyden: Brill, 2017), 194–212 and 185–299.
65 As we can read in Davies, ‘The Influence of Justus Lipsius’, 171.
66 Vera, El Enbaxador, II, 89r.
67 For the comparison with Lipsius’ Politica, we have used: Lipsius, Politica: Six Books of Politics, 163. The table on this page has been used for comparison with the Tacitus citations examined in this paper.
68 See note 48 above.
69 See note 58 above.
70 With 19 and 8 occurrences respectively.
71 Carlo Pasquale, Legatus opus Caroli Paschalii Regij Consiliarij, et in Normania Senatu Aduocati generalis distinctum in capita septem et Septuaginta (Rothomagi: Raphaelem Parvivallium, 1598); Pietro Andrea Canoniero, Dell’introduzione alla política, alla ragion di stato, etc. (Antwerp: Ioachimo Trognesio,1614), 3:180–244.
72 Carlo Pasquale, C. Cornelii Taciti equitis Romani ab excessu divi Augusti Annalium libri quatuor priores, et in hos observationes Caroli Paschalij (Paris: Robertum Colombellum, 1581); see also Arnaldo Momigliano, ‘The First Political Commentary on Tacitus’, The Journal of Roman Studies 37, Parts 1 and 2 (1947): 91–101; Pietro Andrea Canoniero, Discursus Politici supra duos primos Libros Cornelij Taciti (Roma: Bartolomeo Zannetti, 1609).
73 Vera, El Enbaxador, IV, 73v (sic 37).
74 Jan Waszink, ‘Inventio in the Politica: Commonplace-Books and the Shape of Political Theory’, in Lipsius in Leiden, ed. K. Enenkel and C. Heesakkers (Voorthuizen: Florivallis, 1997), 141–62.
75 Juan Antonio de Vera y Zúñiga, Title Page of Le Parfait Ambassadeur, trans. Lancelot (Paris: Antoine de Sommaville, 1635).